The next day.

In the middle of a small castle in Zeilant, Luna was introducing me to her subordinates.

"This is Swen. Starting today, he'll be serving as our strategist."

Two members of Luna's army looked at me with complicated expressions.

Including myself, there were only four people in this room.

First, there was Kane Nerkis, a man nearing seventy who handled politics.
According to the game’s lore, Kane was the one who had provided Luna with the funds needed to raise an army.

The second person was Tifa, the general of Luna's forces.
She was Luna’s childhood friend and had joined simply to help her out.
While she seemed a bit one-dimensional, she didn’t look like the type who would stab anyone in the back.

"Nice to meet you. The name’s Kane Nerkis. Don’t mind my age—feel free to speak comfortably with me. Ahem."

Kane, draped in a tattered robe, extended his hand.
I shook it briefly before turning to Tifa and offering mine.

She took my hand in her large palm, tilted her head, and asked,

"My name’s Tifa. But hey, Swen... are you a guy or a girl?"

"Huh? Isn’t it obvious? I’m a guy."

"Then why are your arms so pale and thin? And what’s with that delicate face?"

Honestly, seeing her in person, I could understand why she’d ask that.

Tifa’s body was more like that of a warrior than a woman—muscular and toned.
Her bright red hair was tied up for practicality, and the massive axe slung across her back radiated an intimidating aura.

She grabbed my arm and gave it a few rough shakes before flashing a grin.

"Well, whatever. Looking forward to working with you, strategist!"

I felt my energy drain just from that short interaction.

‘Damn, she’s exhausting.’

Maybe my low physical stats made me more sensitive to this kind of thing?

Anyway—these two were Luna’s only subordinates at the moment.

Kane was good at politics but average at everything else.
Tifa, on the other hand, had decent strength and leadership but wasn’t exactly the brightest.

That summed up Luna’s talent pool for now.

Still, they both had ridiculous potential.

Take Kane, for example. He might look like an old man wasting away the rest of his years,
but his actual backstory revealed that he was the younger brother of the fallen emperor of the Eingart Empire.

He’d faked his death after losing a power struggle and lived in hiding until he saw potential in Luna and decided to support her.

In other words, this man was the uncle of Serpina, the notorious Tyrant of Eingart.

Later in the game, Kane would reveal his true identity right before dying of old age.
He’d then introduce Luna’s army to his secret descendants—a literal dream team of SSS-tier characters.

So keeping him alive until then was absolutely critical.

Then there was Tifa.

She might seem like a brute, but she was one of the few people on the continent capable of sensing mana.

[Garland Eternity Saga] wasn’t exactly a well-researched medieval fantasy—it mixed elements however it pleased.
For example, there were no officially recognized “mages” in this world.

Combat followed a simple rock-paper-scissors system:
Cavalry beat archers, archers beat spearmen, and spearmen beat cavalry.

It was an old-school mechanic without much depth.

That said, magic itself did exist.

A select few individuals could sense mana and unleash powerful attacks like lightning strikes or fiery meteors.

Tifa was one of those rare people.

Her biggest strength was that she wasn’t just a warrior but also someone who could use magic.

Most magic users in the game were intelligence-based strategists,
so the idea of a muscle-bound general who could also cast spells made her one of the strongest potential units.

The only problem?

The game never specified when her powers would awaken.

All it said was that if you kept her alive long enough, she’d eventually unlock magic.

Since Luna’s army had a [Rise from the Ashes] theme,
it made sense that both Kane and Tifa had backstories to match.

But none of that really mattered right now.

In the game, if you let the CPU handle Luna’s army,
it would vanish from the map within a year with a message like: [The Luna Army has disappeared into the pages of history.]

"Let’s start this month’s meeting," Luna announced.
"Feel free to share any ideas. If there’s a specific task you’d like to take on, just let me know."

The game’s mechanics mirrored this exactly—
you issued commands once a month, and your subordinates carried them out until the next cycle.

Kane raised his hand.

"Milady, I believe we should invest in the marketplace this month to develop our economy."

‘Invest in trade, huh?’

In the early stages, money was always tight.

There were only two ways to make gold—
explore the surrounding area or invest in trade to boost tax revenue.

Given Kane’s high political stats, his suggestion made perfect sense.

"So, Swen, what do you think?" Luna asked.

I’d told her to treat me like a lower-ranked officer and consult me on all major decisions.

This was important.

With my 100 Intelligence, I needed direct questions to make accurate predictions.

And the result was quick:

[Kane will produce decent results if assigned to trade development.]

But…

‘Let’s think back to my own gameplay.’

To be honest, I hadn’t played Luna’s army that often.

I’d cleared her route once by making her rise from nothing, but it got boring afterward.

Still, there was no harm in using my past experiences as a rough guide.

"May I offer my opinion, milady?"

"Go ahead."

"I suggest assigning Kane to reinforce the castle walls instead of focusing on trade."

"…?"

Kane looked at me curiously.

"Listen, Swen, was it? I appreciate the confidence, but…

To fix the walls, you’d need someone to lead the workers in person.

Do you really think a bunch of laborers would listen to an old man like me?"

I listened to Kane and quickly realized how this game’s command system actually worked.

To repair the walls effectively, you needed a high [Strength] stat.
On the other hand, to make progress in trade, you needed a high [Politics] stat.

It was a simple, almost mind-numbingly straightforward mechanic where the results depended purely on stats.
I had never really thought about how those numbers translated into actual in-game actions.

Since Kane had low Strength, he was unlikely to succeed at wall repairs.
The game justified this by implying that "workers wouldn’t take orders well from someone physically weak."

‘Still, there’s no point in boosting trade right now.’

There was only one reason I pushed for wall repairs—
this city was doomed to fall anyway.

No matter how hard we recruited soldiers, trained them, or improved the economy,
Zeilant was fated to be taken by the Brans Army sooner or later.

Lyn Brans, the ruler of the Brans Army, had an expansionist mindset.
It was practically set in stone.

So rather than upgrading the marketplace and handing over a highly developed city,
it made more sense to strengthen the walls, pretend to hold out, and buy time to escape.

This wasn’t just a random guess.
It was the exact exploit I’d used when I played Luna’s campaign before.

If a powerful nation was nearby, the best strategy was to run.
Once you reached a less appealing area that larger nations wouldn’t bother with,
you could settle down and slowly build up your strength.

The specific values and placements of territories weren’t fixed in this game,
so there was no absolute strategy—but the basics of survival didn’t change.

Luna didn’t seem completely convinced about my suggestion to assign Kane to wall repairs.
But after a moment, she nodded.

"…Understood. Then what about Tifa?"

"I don’t care. Just give me something to do. I can handle anything. Should I go fix the walls with this old man?"

Luna turned to me again.

"Swen, what task should Tifa take on?"

Honestly, having her help with the walls sounded fine.

It’s not like we weren’t already planning to bail.

Still, since I’d been asked a question, I had to run it through my head.

‘What should I assign to Tifa?’

Once again, my 100 Intelligence brain quickly delivered the optimal answer.

[Trade.]

"…???"

Wait, what?

Trade?

I double-checked the answer in my head, but it didn’t change.

[Tifa should focus on trade and develop the marketplace.]

‘…Huh.’

No matter how much I tried to make sense of it, it just didn’t click.

But I trusted my Intelligence stat.

In this game, 100 Intelligence never gave wrong answers.

And since this was still the game world, that rule had to remain absolute.

"Swen?"

"Ah, sorry. I was just thinking."

I looked back and forth between Luna, Kane, and Tifa.

Then, with the most serious tone I could muster, I said:

"Tifa, please focus on trade and work on developing the marketplace."